Blog#9

Laura: For Laura, she is the one who has a small amount of conversation, also she is a shy girl in the society. Sometimes, she just listens to what the family is saying, and doesn’t publish any speech. Otherwise, she is a girl who always listens to her mother and enjoys her little own world. This quote is on page 17 to 18, while her mother finds out that she drops out of the typing school, and questions where has she been to after the dropout, she innocently responds that” I went in the art museum and the bird-houses at the Zoo. I visited the penguins every day! Sometimes I did without lunch and went to the movies. Lately, I’ve been spending most of my afternoons in the Jewel-box, that big glass house where they raise the tropical flowers.” She just like a little kid that explains everything to her big parents about why she is lying and where did she go. Because of the isolation from other kids at her age, she explains everything to her mother and listens what her mother say to her. She is showing off to her mom because she went to that place, and saw the amazing animals in the zoos. She has a pure heart that like a small child who wants attention from her parents. This sentence indicates that she patiently answers all the questions that her mother wants from her. I think she is a nice and obedience person in this play because she always gives small details to her mother like the zoos she goes to, and what did she do in the zoos with those animals. It seems like she is introducing the animals she had been to her mom, and wants her to go as well She is also a person that trust her mother so that she can say anything to her mother. Maybe she wants her mom to take her to go to the zoo and the shops she went before like other children.

Amanda: Amanda is the mother of Laura and Tom, and they live in a small apartment in St. Louis. Her husband abandoned her years ago, and she now lives in a fantasy of her own life. She constantly complains about her life and thinks about the gentle callers that she had before. Because her husband leaves her, she depends on Tom which is the youngest child in the family. Tom has to work in the warehouse to support the family. Tom, of course, wants to leave the house and lives alone with no burden on his shoulders because he feels like he is being suppressed by his mother, so Amanda implores her son not to leave the family, otherwise, they will live in a poor situation. She then says maybe when Laura gets married to another man, that’s the time when you can leave wherever you want.   “I mean as soon as Laura has got somebody to take care of her, married, a home of her own, independent---why, then you’ll be free to go wherever you please,(Rises, crosses to Tom.) on land, on sea, whichever way the wind blows you! But until that time you’ve got to look out for your sister. (Crosses R. behind armchair.) I don’t say me because I am old and don’t matter! I say for your sister because she’s young and dependent. I put her in business college--A dismal failure! Frightened her so it made her sick at the stomach. I took her to the Young People’s League at the church. Another fiasco. She spoke to nobody, nobody spoke to her. (Sit armchair.) Now all she does is fool with those pieces of glass and play those worn-out records. What kind of a life is that for a girl to lead.” These sentences state that Amanda cares more about her daughter than her son. She made a ‘contrast’ with her son when Laura is married, he then can leave. She never cares about the issue of her son. Her son needs to work for sustaining the family’s economy. If he is gone, the family will not have any support, and maybe there will probably die on the street. Based on her words, she thinks a girl can only live when there is a man who supports the economy, and also a girl must marry at a certain age. Also at her age, she thinks she is too old to earn money for the family, so she asks Tom to work, in which this evidence proves that she has some stereotype about women and men. Her personality would be mean and prejudice toward some people because of her experiences and her thinking about depending on men and staff.  In other cases, her backstory might be complex because the thinking might have some connections with the gentlemen callers in the past, maybe the gentlemen were giving flowers and gifts to Amanda. As a result, she might think it’s better to rely on men than itself. She desires that her girl Laura can get marry with some boys that with nice behaviors, and lots of money. Then, she can also move into the house with Laura and she will probably be taken good care of it.

Tom: Tom is the smallest children in the family, yet he has to carry the most. Because his father left the house years ago, he has to take all of the responsibility of the house. He is the only man in the house. Frankly, he couldn’t afford that much. He is a boy who is becoming an adult so he might want to play and enjoy his life like other kids in the world, but he couldn’t. His mom forces him to work in a place that he has no interest, and doesn’t allow him to make his dream come true, and lets him take care of his sister. After all of the pressures, he explodes “No? Well, you’re right. For once in your life you’re right. I’m not going to the movies. I’m going to opium dens! Yes, Mother, opium dens, dens of vice and criminals’ hang outs, Mother. I’ve joined the Hogan gang. I’m a hired assassin, I carry a Tommy-gun in a violin case! I run a string of cathouses in the valley! They call me Killer, Killer Wingfield, I’m really leading a double life. By day, I’m a simple honest warehouse worker, but at night I’m a dynamic czar of the underworld. Why, I got to gambling casino and spin away a fortune on the roulette table! I wear green whiskers. On those occasions, they call me--El Diablo! Oh, I could tell you things to make you sleepless! My enemies plan to dynamite this place some night! Some night they’re going to blow us all sky high. And will I be glad! Will I be happy! And so will you be. You’ll go up-up-over Blue Mountain on a broomstick! With seventeen gentlemen callers. You ugly babbling old witch!” These sentences obviously indicate that he couldn’t afford any more in the house. His mom only cares about Laura’s marriage and her life rather than his. His life is just for supporting the life of theirs. He is working at the warehouse so he could support his family’s lives, and his job is not just for fun, but for living purpose. He gets angry about when his mother treated him unequally, and her mom even tells him to stay out of his dream for now, and not even allow him to go to the ‘movie’ to release his stress from work and her. He then releases all of it to his mother, saying that he is a killer. Maybe, he releases his imaginary scenes to his mother in his book. His dream is to become a writer, but he was debarred by his own mother, so he wants to go away from this sadness and depressing house to a place that he likes or enjoys. His personality is nice because he didn’t say anything before about the job and the pressure he has, he always endures it by himself such as smoking cigarettes on the back, so people won’t see his face anymore. For his desire, he just wants to live his own life in his own world as well and be with his writing and literature. He wants to be free as other boys in the society that don’t have to sustain the house.